Could They Have Screwed This Up Much Worse?
So, let's get this straight. After canceling this season on Wednesday, the NHL and the players tried to un-cancel it in another meeting today. I guess they can't even cancel a season the right way. Gretzky and Lemiuex were involved in the proceedings this time, which raises the question of where have they been in the process all along. Of course, Goodenow and Bettman weren't invited- I suppose they were planning on getting something accomplished this time.

The result remained exactly the same however, no agreements were reached, which makes you wonder why they even bothered in the first place. Sounds like they were just wasting everyone's time, again. What a bunch of bozos, to put it nicely. They've screwed up so bad, at this rate, they'll all end up being the Canadian Secretary of State before all is said and done. Oh well, at least there is always Arena Football.

Computers- gotta love 'em
I had to take an online test this past weekend at the so-so www.webassign.net. What this involves is typing your answers onto text boxes on the web page, and then it all gets sent to your professor. For my test, there was a one hour time limit.

This was for my European relations class, and seeing how its in my major, I studied pretty seriously all weekend for it, knowing that I'll end up having to take a test against the clock online, in a setting that I've never done before. I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, in addition to being nervous over a big test in general.

So Sunday, after all day studying, I decide to go ahead and take the damn thing. I figured the library's computers would probably work better than mine, so I took it there. It starts out fairly well, I'm familiar with all my terms and facts more or less so no problems there. What I did was, I typed it in Word and then copied and pasted to the web page. There's a large essay you have to write to finish the test, and I'm making good progress on it, about to wrap it up and finish the test with a couple of minutes to spare, when- maybe you can guess what happens here.

Yup. The computer completely crashed and reset on me. Apparently, it was caused by a "comminication error" the computer had. Before resetting the power, the computer tried to auto save the file, but no doubt thanks to UNCC's computer's tough security settings, it was denied permission to save. Had I happened to save the essay myself before the computer went down? No, of course not. My essay was lost and I was basically out of time. I was just a little pissed at this later development. My friend Akane tried to tell me just to type it again and email it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I logged off and went home to drink a beer.

Fortunately, it seems to have ended well. When I told my professor, he seemed pretty understand and extended the deadline that I could take the test. So I typed it up again, and got everything sent in this time. So hopefully I shouldn't fail thanks to the schools computers, just my own academic incompetence. Wow, that ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would. But the bottom line is this- computers sure can be a pain in the ass sometimes.

My Exciting Friday Night
Well, after another long week of school, sure enough the weekend finally arrived. It had been an up and down week, sure I lost at both table tennis and badminton, but I did get to interview my favorite person of all time, Kierstin Arrandt, about working in smoke-filled bars and restaurants. As Friday arrived, I didn't have much planned on the docket. Ok, actually nothing planned. So rather than the same old, useless routine, I decided to really go all out and be as lazy as I possibly could.

I played some Xbox, then went out to get some pizza. Got that, then some more Xbox. I watched Seinfeld reruns, played Playstation, watched the ECW DVD, and laid around on my ass in general. And it felt pretty good. After trying to keep up that big work ethic for school and social life, it was nice just to do nothing for half a day. You should try it- go out of your way to be completely lazy and sloth-like one day. You'll be refreshed and better off for it in the long run.

I guess the pictures say it all
With a "drop-dead" date of this weekend, the final cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season seems imminent. Of course, hockey fans have been wishing for a drop dead date for Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow for some time now (just kidding). With the first cancellation of an entire pro sports season in North America looming, the tension's getting pretty high. That is, of course, if anybody cares about it. In fact, you could argue the NHL is toast no matter what the outcome of the lockout.

Long Days
Just got done with another Tuesday. I never really liked Tuesdays/Thursdays thanks to the class schedule- the classes are an hour and twenty minutes, pretty long at least to me. I usually zone out at about the fifty minute mark, which means that I'm basically not paying attention and/or falling asleep for a third of the class time. Tuesdays/Thursdays are especially long this year because I'm taking an 8 oclock class, like a genius, followed up by a 2 hour Japanese class in the afternoon. I take a nap in the middle, so by waking up and then going to school twice, it effectively feels like two days in one. Did I mention that these are my two least favorite days of the week?

In other, less pleasant, news, my ingrown toenail on the big toe of my left foot is flaring up again- bringing it to over a year now that it has been bothering me on and off. It started when I was in Japan, and I can tell you, trying to get your health insurance to work in Japan is a lot of fun. So, anyways, I'm not too happy about this latest development. Looks like I get to go to the doctor, again.

Boston Must Be Stopped
Well, like it or not, the Patriots are once again Super Bowl Champions. I can't say that I'm too happy about it, myself. I mean, in 2002, when they beat the Rams, it was nice. Throwing a bone to the poor, cursed Boston fan. Oh, they won on a last-second field goal, isn't that special. Then, to really no one's surprise at the time, they missed the playoffs completely the next season. In 2003, after losing to the Bills 31-0 in the opener, the Pats started winning a lot all of a sudden and escaped from Super Bowl XXXVIII with another last second victory over a supposedly overmatched Panthers team.

About this time, I started to dislike the Patriots. Sure, they beat Carolina, my team, I'm sure that had something to do with it. Then everybody started loving the golden boys Brady and Vinatieri, and the "genius" coach who can't dress himself. Then they went out and got Dillon, which gave them the Yankee-like quality of the best team always getting the big free agents.

Speaking of the Yankees, Boston came back and beat them, pretty miraculously. Then they won the World Series too. Hmm, it's kind of getting hard to cheer for the long suffering, self pitying Boston fan all of a sudden. Somewhere around that time, the Pats started getting surly, and developing a huge chip on their shoulder, which didnt endear them too much more to me. And then of course, this latest NFL title, and all the dynasty talk. Folks, enough is enough. Boston, you've had your share. Lovable underdogs no more, they're edging close to Evil Empire status. It is now officially time to root against the Boston teams. For the good of sport, it must be done. Who's with me?

Recent Activites
Been doing some interesting things recently. Last night, I got to check my friend Taylor's band, the Punk Jazz Project at the Visulite theatre in Charlotte. They've got an interesting jazz/rock out mix, which makes them worth a listen by itself. It was a good show, probably the best yet, and the Visulite theater has a cool vibe to it.

Today was the big Charlotte/Cincy game- you know, the one where all the UNCC students decide to show up for a home game? Yeah, that one. ESPN was there, and the Diego Guevara bobblehead giveaway was in full force. Anyway, it ended up being a really good game- back and forth the whole game, full of spectacular plays, and somebody even threw a nerf football at the ref. Charlotte won on the last play, a missed shot by Cincy, and we all got to rush the floor. Very exciting, and even better because it might be the last time Charlotte and Cincinatti play for awhile- so we got the last laugh, at least for now.

Lack of Updates
Sorry about the slow state of blog entries around here. I haven't been feeling so hot one way or another for about a week or so, and I had a pretty rough cold last week. I got rid of that by sleeping for 12 hours straight, so that was good, but since then I've just still been feeling pretty crappy in general with a lot of low level headaches. Man, I'm getting another one right now just thinking about it. So, when you're not feeling too good, blogging kind of takes a low priority. Ergo, no updates for a week.

Anyway, on to THE GREAT ICE STORM OF '05. Deciding that I'd rather not be stuck freezing in my apartment, I drove home on Friday (Happy Birthday Jack) and bunkered down at home, where the food is always better. Indeed, it snowed and got iced over, but mostly melted by Sunday. So, no need to panic too much.

Back at school, I had some mixed results on Ebay. I won a lot of old Tiger LCD games for $12, but got sniped on some old Gamepro mags from the early 90's. Well, that's just how it is, Ebay can be a ruthless place sometimes.

Last night was "Lutzville", the yearly campout for Cincinnati basketball game tickets. After the great "Freezing my ass off" of 2003, I swore never to camp out for tickets again. I did stop by though to hang out and partake in some of the festivities, however. The student activites group on campus did a pretty good job of making it a fun time- there was music, video game tournaments, freebies, and they even kept the Pizza Hut open late. So, good for them. And to Jason and all those who braved the elements, we salute you.

Are you ready for some hot executive branch action tonight?!? It's the State of the Union address, and apparently the hot topic is going to be "Saving Social Security". Sadly, I don't think I can count on the Bush Administration to save much except the bottom lines of their wealthy donor class. Remember folks, in politics as well as business, buyer beware!

I'm on TV!!!
This is probably old news to most of you, but I was interviewed on Channel 9 news the other day. What happened was, Friday afternoon, me and Sammy had just got done with a nice game of ping pong at the SAC game room. Walking back, we saw a Channel 9 TV truck. We figured there was some live remote or something, and joked about bugging the cameraman. Well, he walks up to us and asks if we can say a few words about some campus construction issues- putting in new sidewalks and replacing the old concrete ones with bricks.

As you may know, I lived in Japan for about a year, and learned the great value of being able to walk places whenever I feel like it- it's a fairly serious complaint I have about the UNCC campus. So, I definitely had something to say to the cameraman about the situation (no cute female reporter to hit on this time, sadly). The part that got put on the 10 oclock, 11 oclock, and morning newscasts was how UNCC needs to imporve its looks in order to better compete with other NC University system schools. Which is true, if UNCC wants to step it up as a campus, they've gotta look the part.

Anyways, I did manage to see the last half of the segment on TV that night. Despite the camera's bright lights I suppose I looked good enough for my five seconds of fame. Anyways, it's a very surreal feeling looking at the TV, and seeing yourself staring right back at you. You should try it sometime.